Sail Canada has announced that Jacob and Graeme Saunders (Chester, NS) have qualified for Rio 2016 in the men’s two-person 470 boat.

Jacob (Helm) and Graeme (Crew) teamed up in the double-handed boat in 2009, qualifying for the National team in 2013. The sibling duo have been campaigning for Rio for over 5 years, making continuous progress on the international sailing stage. In January 2016, Team Saunders finished a career high 7th at the Sailing World Cup – Miami and secured a country berth for Canada.

Jacob and Graeme competed at the 2015 Olympic Test Event last August and look forward to getting back on the water in Brazil as soon as possible. “We’ll shift our focus to training in Rio right after Weymouth World Cup, getting to know the venue better and working hard to ensure we perform our best at the Games this summer.”

The Saunders team qualification brings the total count up to 8 Canadian sailors punching their ticket to Rio. Graeme and Jacob will be nominated to the Canadian Olympic Committee alongside teammates Tom Ramshaw (Finn) Brenda Bowskill (Laser Radial), Nikola Girke and Luke Ramsay (Nacra 17) and Erin Rafuse and Danielle Boyd (49erFX). The Canadian trials continue for the remaining Olympic hopefuls through until the end of Weymouth World Cup in Dorset, UK in early June.

Prior to being named to the final Canadian Rio 2016 Team, all nominations are subject to approval by the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Team Selection Committee following its receipt of nominations by Sail Canada.

Stephen and Fran Hill are our most prolific POTW contributors. So far we have received at least three dozen beauties. Here’s the first note we received:

Over the past two summers we completed the Down East Circle Route on our 37' Nordic Tug named "Tug'n". Here are a series of photos from the two summers. I hope a few might be of interest to your readers.

Jeanneau’s newest NC model is the NC 33, and it’s an exciting and innovative inboard cruiser ideally suited to young families or couples.

Nick Harvey, President of Jeanneau America wanted to emphasize that their new NC 33 features a hull design by Michael Peters. Peters’ hand has been on many of the company’s recent designs and strong performance and excellent sea-keeping are to be expected.

At an overall length of 34.5” and equipped with twin engines, the NC 33 has been designed to fit in between Jeanneau’s NC 9(30’11” with a single engine) and the NC 11 at 36’6” and with twin engines.

A thin breeze skittered across the Gulf of Maine, and a low cloud ceiling stamped-outany moonlight, making for a darknight aboard my dad’s J/44, Southern Cross. My wife and I were standing watch with nothing to look at, save a few distant lights. While my wife enjoys excellent vision, I suffer from severe red-green color blindness that makes it hard to determine if I’m looking at bow and stern lights, discreet vessels, or both. Given that in August of 2006 Automatic Identification System (AIS) wasn’t yet widespread amongst recreational craft, we spent the next few minutes trying to discern the nature of the scene before consulting the radar, getting on the VHF, and waking our captain.

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